873. A woman of few words....

.... but not few enough.

The screen print above, taken today, shows the Katherine Harris for Senate web site blog/campaign diary. It's dated Monday, May 29, 2006 with the greeting:

Welcome to the Campaign Diary!

This section will be updated soon, please check back in a few days.

880. Iraq: The set-it-and-forget-it! war

Bush takes his marching orders from Ron Popeil.

881. Mixed messages

Bush press conference: "We're not leaving Iraq so long as JonBenet Ramsey is President."

882. Outcome of the Rethuglican election strategy?

Lots of references today to Frank Rich's latest column "Five Years After 9/11, Fear Finally Strikes Out." However, the origin of the expression "fear strikes out" goes back a long way.....

Fear Strikes Out: The Jim Piersall Story.... book / film

883. Who Dunnit?

I haven't gotten over to see the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?", though I've heard from a number of friends that it's quite compelling.

That said, I'm always amazed that no matter how many times I see a particular Simpsons episode, when I see it again I seem to pick up some new gem. So, this time I paid more attention to the words of the song "We Do" from the Homer the Great episode, in which Homer joins the ultra-secretive Stonecutters. (This episode is from 1995!)

Who controls the British crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
We do! We do.

Who leaves the Atlantis off the maps? [shot of Carl]
Who keeps the Martians under wraps? [shot of Lenny]
We do! We do. [shot of Martian]

Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Guttenberg a star? [shot of Steve]
We do! We do.

Who robs cave fish of their sight? [shot of Skinner]
Who rigs every Oscar night? [shot of Homer]
We do! We do.

All about Homer the Great...

883. The calm before the storm?

What do the following have in common? (Click any name for a big hint.)

Alberto Beryl Chris Debby Ernesto

Florence Gordon Helene Isaac Joyce

Kirk Leslie Michael Nadine Oscar

Patty Rafael Sandy Tony Valerie

William

885. In theaters now!

886. Cabinet fun facts!

Alberto Gonzales is the second U.S. Attorney General to have the same initials, A.G., as his cabinet post.

The first was Augustus Hill Garland, who served under President Grover Cleveland from 1885 to 1889.

Bonus fun fact: There has never been a U.S. Secretary of State with the initials S.S. In fact, there has never been a Secretary of State with even just a first initial S....while there have been 17 with first initial J.

887. Spam, spam, spam, spam.... Fear, fear, fear, fear

Cut to a café. All the customers look like Dick Cheney. Mr. and Mrs. Merica enter - downwards (on wires).

MR. MERICA

Morning.

DUBYA

Morning.

MR. MERICA

What have you got, then?

DUBYA

Well there's egg and bacon; egg, sausage and bacon; egg and fear; egg, bacon and fear; egg, bacon, sausage and fear; fear, bacon, sausage and fear; fear, egg, fear, fear, bacon and fear; fear, fear, fear, egg and fear; fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, baked beans, fear, fear, fear and fear; or lobster thermidor aux crevettes with a mornay sauce garnished with truffle pâté, brandy and a fried egg on top and fear.

MRS. MERICA

Have you got anything without fear in it?

DUBYA

Well there's fear, egg, sausage and fear. That's not got much fear in it.

MRS. MERICA

I don't want any fear.

MR. MERICA

Why can't she have egg, bacon, fear and sausage?

MRS. MERICA

That's got fear in it!

MR. MERICA

Not as much as fear, egg, sausage and fear.

MRS. MERICA

Look, could I have egg, bacon, fear and sausage without the fear.

DUBYA

Uuuuuuggggh!

MRS. MERICA

What d'you mean uuugggh! I don't like fear.

CHENEYS
(singing)

Fear, fear, fear, fear, fear ... fear, fear, fear, fear ... lovely fear, wonderful fear ...

DUBYA

Shut up. Shut up! Shut up! You can't have egg, bacon, fear and sausage without the fear.

MRS. MERICA

Why not!

DUBYA

No, it wouldn't be egg, bacon, fear and sausage, would it.

MRS. MERICA

I dont like fear!

MR. MERICA

Don't make a fuss, dear. I'll have your fear. I love it. I'm having fear, fear, fear, fear, fear ...

CHENEYS

(singing)

Fear, fear, fear, fear ...

MR. MERICA

... baked beans, fear, fear and fear.

DUBYA

Baked beans are off.

MR. MERICA

Well can I have fear instead?

DUBYA

You mean fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear?

CHENEYS

(still singing)

Fear, fear, fear, fear ... (etc.)

MR. MERICA

Yes.

DUBYA

Arrggh!

CHENEYS

... lovely fear, wonderful, fear.

DUBYA

Shut up! Shut up!

The Cheneys shut up momentarily. Enter the Hungarian.

HUNGARIAN

Great boobies honeybun, my lower intestine is full of fear, egg, fear, bacon, fear, tomato, fear ...

CHENEYS

(starting up again)

Fear, fear, fear, fear ...

DUBYA

Shut up.

A policeman rushes in and bundles the Hungarian out

HUNGARIAN

My nipples explode ...

Cut to a Historian

Superimposed caption: A HISTORIAN

HISTORIAN

Another great Cheney victory was at the Green Midget café at Bromley. Once again the Cheney strategy was the same. They sailed form these fiords here, (indicating a map with arrows on it) assembled at Trondheim and waited for the strong north-easterly winds to blow their oaken galleys to England whence they sailed on May 23rd. Once in Bromley they assembled in the Green Midget café and fear selecting a fear particular fear item from the fear menu would fear, fear, fear, fear, fear ...

The backdrop behind him rises to reveal the café again. The Cheneys start singing again and the

HISTORIAN conducts them.

CHENEYS

(singing)

Fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, lovely fear, wonderful fear. Lovely fear wonderful fear ...


Credits: Liberally modified from....
http://www.noteboom.demon.nl/spam.html
Monty Python's Flying Circus - Just the Words (Volume Two)
Edited from the original scripts and video tapes by Roger Wilmut
Methuen, Londen, 1989
ISBN 0-413-62550-8
Copyright © Python Productions Ltd 1989

887. WW Season 20?

If The West Wing had presented stories like Lamont-Lieberman instead of the mush that was served up the last couple of seasons, it would still be on the air.

888. Handy dandy

891.Silence would be golden

Joe Loserman and....
Rembrandt's "Man With a Golden Helmet" (c. 1650)

Click pic to see the full-scale original painting

892. Thugs, no matter how you spell it

893. Only the operation is fuzzy, not the math

December 7, 1941
-thru-
May 8, 1945 (VE-Day) = 1,248 days

March 19, 2003 (U.S. invasion of Iraq)
-thru-
August 18, 2006 (next Friday) = 1,248 days

Welcome
Daou Report/Carpetbagger/Talk Left/Oliver Willis
readers!

Continue on to the top....

894. The landmine cartel

OLEC/Organization of Landmine Exporting Countries: United States, Iran, North Korea, Burma

895. No comment

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German scientist has been testing an "anti-stupidity" pill with encouraging results on mice and fruit flies, Bild newspaper reported on Saturday.

It said Hans-Hilger Ropers, director at Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, has tested a pill thwarting hyperactivity in certain brain nerve cells, helping stabilise short-term memory and improve attentiveness.

"With mice and fruit flies we were able to eliminate the loss of short-term memory," Ropers, 62, is quoted saying in the German newspaper, which has dubbed it the "world's first anti-stupidity pill."

896. Oh, goody!

Time for another Bush Quiz. (The Twentieth Hundred Days, Paul Slansky, The New Yorker, 8/7/06)

1. Complete George W. Bush’s quote: “I believe that my job is _____.”

(a) to protect life. And sometimes people have to die in order to protect life, see? And that saddens me.

(b) hard. It’s a heckuva hard job. It’s difficult. But I’m doin’ it, see, and I’m gonna keep on doin’ it, because that’s the job of a President.

(c) to go out and explain to people what’s on my mind. That’s why I’m having this press conference, see? I’m telling you what’s on my mind. And what’s on my mind is winning the war on terror.

(d) to construe the laws I sign in a Presidential way. Because that’s part of being a leader, see, is construing with your gut.

Answer to this question and the rest of the quiz here....

897. Now you're talking!

Jack Ziegler, The New Yorker, August 7, 2006

898. Rhyme time

899. Do I bet? You bet!

Self-interrogation

900. Bush gone fishin'

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!!

Don't let the door hit you on the way out...